Report: Randy Couture vs. Chuck Liddell IV in works for Germany event

After competing in three legendary light-heavyweight fights, former UFC champions Randy Couture (16-9 MMA, 13-6 UFC) and Chuck Liddell (21-6 MMA, 16-5 UFC) could now meet during a heavyweight encounter at a June 13 event in Cologne, Germany.

The report comes from the U.K.-based The Sun, which cites UFC officials as saying Liddell has been offered the heavyweight main event.

Couture recently lost his heavyweight belt to Brock Lesnar at UFC 91. Liddell, meanwhile, has dropped three of his four past fights at light heavyweight, but he’s made no public statement regarding a potential move up to heavyweight.

A source told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) that Couture is open to a fourth Liddell fight, but we’ve been unable to confirm is the fight has been offered to Liddell.

With the event apparently in the works for Germany, it should come as little surprise that the UFC invited a small contingent of German press to UFC 91 to see Couture’s main event with Lesnar. The 45-year-old Couture speaks German and has long been considered a likely headliner once the UFC does head to Germany, a market UFC officials have continually mentioned as a site for future expansion.

Couture and Liddell took part in a popular trilogy of fights that played out between 2003 and 2006. Couture scored a third-round TKO at UFC 43 to win the first match-up for the interim light heavyweight title (former champ Tito Ortiz had been stripped of the title), but the 38-year-old Liddell won back the belt and made a successful title defense over Couture with knockout wins at UFC 52 and UFC 57.

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With Liddell potentially tied up with the Germany event, he is apparently no longer being considered as an opponent for Anderson Silva at UFC 95 in London, England.

The Sun reported the possibility of the bout, and though not opposed to the fight, Silva’s manager, Ed Soares, last week told MMAjunkie.com that the UFC had not officially approached them about it.

The newspaper now reports that Silva, the UFC’s current middleweight champion, could instead meet one of the losers from UFC 92’s two marquee 205-pound fights: UFC light heavyweight champion Forrest Griffin vs. Rashad Evans or Wanderlei Silva vs. Quinton Jackson.